OLD-FASHIONED APPLESAUCE CAKE

1/2 cup shortening or unsalted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons molasses
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 large apples, one cored and cut into 12 thin wedges, the other diced
3/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. Grease an 8-inch round, 2-inch-deep cake pan.
2. With an electric mixer set at low speed, beat the shortening or butter with the brown sugar until creamy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions to incorporate. Add the vanilla and beat to incorporate. In a separate bowl, beat together the applesauce and molasses.
4. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Add about 1⁄3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for 20 to 30 seconds. Add half the applesauce mixture and beat for 20 to 30 seconds, remaining applesauce mixture, and then the remaining flour mixture, beating for 20 to 30 seconds between each addition.
5. With a wooden spoon, stir in the diced apple, walnuts and raisins until thoroughly incorporated. Turn the batter into the prepared pan; it will be thick. Smooth the top with a spatula and arrange apple slices in a design.
6. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until golden and the cake springs back when gently pressed. A skewer inserted in the very center should come out with a few moist crumbs. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes; then carefully turn out onto a rack and cool completely.
Serves 12
— adapted from “An Apple A Day,” by Karen Berman and Melissa Petitte
Per serving: Per serving: 299 calories, 14 grams fat, 2.3 grams fiber, 4.5 grams protein, 47 grams carbohydrate, 140 milligrams sodium, 52 milligrams cholesterol
Values are approximate.MORE ONLINE: To read more food-related stories, get recipes, see food-related photo galleries and videos, click here.
For more: To find recipes from previous Food sections, visit www.goerie.com/section/food. While you're there, add your own recipes and review others.

Apples have begun their annual tumble from trees into our outstretched hands. There are about a billion ways to use them: in sauce, pie, crisp, salad, chutney, or baked whole, sliced and dipped in caramel, or whole and candied. And in Applesauce Cake. Like this one, for instance.

It's a treat remembered fondly by those whose mothers and grandmothers baked it during wartime and thereafter. Having tasted it, I can't believe it ever went out of style.

Not too sweet and somehow moist and hearty at the same time, Applesauce Cake tastes a little like spice cake -- though without ginger -- and comes studded with diced apples, raisins and chopped walnuts.

It was popular during wartime because using applesauce, spices and dried fruit and nuts reduced the need for eggs, sugar and butter, which were all rationed.

This recipe, having evolved since then, calls for all three, though in smaller quantities than in other cakes.

Applesauce Cake doesn't need frosting, but you could certainly add it -- at a hefty cost in calories, of course. It's hard to resist fantasizing about it spread with some sweetened cream cheese concoction.

Even when simply adorned with apple slices, however, a slice of the cake tastes like a wedge of pure autumn. It pairs well with coffee, tea or milk, for breakfast, snack or dessert. Friends and family will love it. Also co-workers. Co-workers tend to gobble baked goods like the world's about to end. Applesauce Cake will be gone before lunch.

Five things I learned:

1. The first time I made this, the center didn't get quite done. OK, it was way not done. My oven runs hot, so I usually take stuff out about five minutes before the recipe instructs. I did this and the center was goop. Tasty goop, but goop nonetheless. I'd poked it with a toothpick, but it came out clean, for some reason. I was less than pleased.

The second time I left it in five minutes longer, and it was done all the way through, though the edges were a teensy bit dry. Pick your poison.

2. My mom claims ignorance on affairs in the kitchen, but every once in a while she betrays that veneer, sharing nuggets of information I would never have figured out.

For example, the last time I made a layer cake, she said she looked at the lopsided mess on Facebook and knew what I'd done wrong: I'd failed to get the cake out of the pan in time.

Mom said you can't leave a cake in the pan too long, or it will form a bond of unholy matrimony with the pan, and you'll never get it out intact.

Her advice was corroborated by instructions in this recipe, which said to leave it in the pan for just five minutes before turning it out.

3. Since I started cooking, I've been prepping baking pans with cooking spray, thinking it was healthier than butter. And since I started cooking, I swear not one of my baked goods has come out of the pan cleanly.

It took 11 years, but I've decided to be unapologetic about smearing real butter around the pans for quick breads and muffins, etc. I haven't had to fight the sticking issues since.

As for the health issue, greasing a cake pan with butter adds less than a tablespoon to the whole 12-serving cake, at a cost of, at most, nine calories per slice. This is a price I'm willing to pay.

4. Even if the cake is going to fall out of the pan perfectly, it can be hard to get it right side up without breaking it. Only Shaquille O'Neal could hold it safely in his enormous hands.

I put a plate face down over the cake in the pan and flipped them to let the cake fall out on the plate upside down. I took a cooling rack and put it face down on the bottom of the cake and flipped again. Then it was right side up and ready to be left in peace.

5. You can make your own fresh applesauce from local apples if you're in the mood. It takes about 10 minutes. Peel, core and slice two or three apples, add a quarter-cup of water and boil until the apples are soft and can be puréed with a blender or food processor.

If you have any unsweetened sauce leftover, warm it up, add some sugar and cinnamon, nutmeg and/or ginger, stir and grab a spoon.

OLD-FASHIONED APPLESAUCE CAKE

1/2 cup shortening or unsalted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons molasses
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 large apples, one cored and cut into 12 thin wedges, the other diced
3/4 cup chopped toasted walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven. Grease an 8-inch round, 2-inch-deep cake pan.
2. With an electric mixer set at low speed, beat the shortening or butter with the brown sugar until creamy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions to incorporate. Add the vanilla and beat to incorporate. In a separate bowl, beat together the applesauce and molasses.
4. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice. Add about 1⁄3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for 20 to 30 seconds. Add half the applesauce mixture and beat for 20 to 30 seconds, remaining applesauce mixture, and then the remaining flour mixture, beating for 20 to 30 seconds between each addition.
5. With a wooden spoon, stir in the diced apple, walnuts and raisins until thoroughly incorporated. Turn the batter into the prepared pan; it will be thick. Smooth the top with a spatula and arrange apple slices in a design.
6. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until golden and the cake springs back when gently pressed. A skewer inserted in the very center should come out with a few moist crumbs. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes; then carefully turn out onto a rack and cool completely.
Serves 12
— adapted from “An Apple A Day,” by Karen Berman and Melissa Petitte
Per serving: Per serving: 299 calories, 14 grams fat, 2.3 grams fiber, 4.5 grams protein, 47 grams carbohydrate, 140 milligrams sodium, 52 milligrams cholesterol
Values are approximate.MORE ONLINE: To read more food-related stories, get recipes, see food-related photo galleries and videos, click here.
For more: To find recipes from previous Food sections, visit www.goerie.com/section/food. While you're there, add your own recipes and review others.